A tornado destroys part of the Baltimore warehouse, killing two people

The Friday night storm system caused an EF-1 tornado that hit the city and Baltimore County, causing winds of over 100 mph and destroying part of Amazon.com's warehouse, causing two deaths .

The twister cut a two-kilometer-wide road about 150 meters wide as it ran east for five minutes, said Jim Lee, a weather forecaster at the National Weather Service's Sterling, Virginia office.

He left traces of intermittent damage, knocking over a semitrailer, destroying part of the warehouse and ripping off the roof of an apartment complex in Dundalk, he said.

The collapse of the warehouse has occurred on a loading dock at the Amazon sorting center, Amazon said.

Amazon said the victims were "third party contractors" and not employees of Amazon.

One of them was removed from the rubble Friday night and died in the hospital. The body of the second person was found early Saturday.

The fire department had to bring a crane and other heavy equipment to remove the collapsed concrete and other debris.

The weather service report was sent after sending damage badessment teams in the Baltimore / Dundalk area and Mount Airy to check for tornadoes in the area.

Structural damage has been reported at a Mount Airy shopping center and elsewhere in the region, due to strong winds accompanying the arrival of a cold front.

On Saturday night, Lee said the Mount Airy investigation team was still working.

In Baltimore City, the fire department said the damage to Amazon's warehouse involved a portion of an exterior wall measuring approximately 50 feet by 50 meters that had collapsed. An adjacent part of the roof has also collapsed.

Amazon spokesman Dave Clark, vice president of operations, said in a statement Saturday: "The safety of our employees and our contractors is our top priority. "The building remains closed, we are extremely grateful for the quick response from the emergency services, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by the tragic event on Friday night."

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